Hmmmm student totty wandering around? as it appears to be their student union building.
Back in 2007 I posted this (about a 'dream' dance venue):
http://forum.cerocscotland.com/showp...30&postcount=9
and now it looks like iJig have found a venue which meets some of those dreams.......(except for the Helipad......)
The venue is the Forum in Hertfordshire (20 mins from London).
With a capacity of 750, it looks to have great lighting - and importantly - a state of the art sound system. I sense it will provide more of a 'club' type atmosphere. Will it work? Dunno.....I like the fact that iJig are experimenting.
They are just doing a one-off to begin with.............good luck to them. Will be interesting to compare with the Utopia Twisted a week later....(the last one at the Colisseum before refurb).
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Last edited by JiveLad; 1st-August-2010 at 09:55 AM.
Hmmmm student totty wandering around? as it appears to be their student union building.
Looks impressive, if perhaps more suited to the occasional big event than regular free styles on account of its size.
Not sure I will make it to this first event (it clashes with Blue shoes at Buckden I think). However I will be very interested to hear some feedback and would certainly try to get to any future events.
Hopefully this won't just be a one-off.
Looks great, and its only about 20mins from me!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
Pat was telling me about it a few weeks ago and it did sound fantastic (a dancers dream) but I do agree with Lost Leader that a venue like this suits a "occasional big event than regular free styles".
I look forward to the opening night though (will have to forgo Berko for one night)
Well, the opening night was last night and here's my thoughts...
Getting there
Its very easy and IMO, no Sat Nav needed. The uni is sign-posted off the motorway and 'the forum' is clearly sign-posted after that.
Parking
A well lit, multi-story car-park, right next to the venue and its free
The venue
A new, purpose built, night club.
First impressions - I recieved a warm welcome as I entered and was issued with a wristband, as I handed over my 'fiver'
Although its got a nightclub feel, its still fairly light and airy, with none of the usual stale beer, sweat and fag smell which was a refreshing change.
But now I was faced with a problem, where do I put my stuff I didn't recognise any faces immediately and I felt a bit lost. As with all new venues, its difficult to establish a place to settle, which might sound silly but when everyone's in the same boat, you tend to get a lot of people wandering around aimlessly.
Capacity
IMO there is no way it would hold the advertised 700 jivers!
700 clubbers maybe, but I estimate there was probably 'about' 500 there last night and it was rammed, to the point it was uncomfortable to dance. As the evening progressed, more people started to dance in the bar area and less people stood in the middle chatting and I think this eased the problem somewhat, unless it was that a lot of people left at about 10-30?
But anyway, surprisingly, it still managed to stay fairly cool! So, a thumbs-up for the air-con.
Bar prices, I can only tell you that, I had a pint of half orange juice, topped up with soda water and it came to £1-68. I haven't a clue if that's expensive or not, but I know at Berko, its usually a £1. I queued for about 5 mins, which wasn't too bad considering how many people were there.
The music
It was a real mixed bag, a 'something for everyone' set. So obviously, I liked and disliked some of it. I'd say on a general note, it was probably slightly faster and more clubby than say, a Twisted night for instance but there was a smattering of Latin, WCS, Tango, R&B and Lindy stuff. the sound quality was 'good'
The floors
The main floor is some sort of smooth industrial stuff I liked it! (just a shame it was to busy to enjoy it properly)
The bar floor was a good quality wood but very hit and miss, as early in the evening, people were standing around drinking on it, so inevitably, some drinks got spilt on it.
I never ventured up to the 'top bar' but heard it was pretty much the same as the main bar, except the girls I'd spoken to complained there were no free men up there, it was mainly couples.
Opinion of the first night. Far Far too crowded, to enjoy a decent dance on the main floor. The gender balance was way off, so there were a lot of ladies looking lost. But the atmosphere was nice and I did end up having some great dances.
And it was especially nice to catch up with MarcusJ again, fab dances hun
Overall opinion
I think its got potential but there's things that need to be addressed...
No one I spoke liked the lay-out, from the 'getting/asking/being asked for a dance' perspective. The fact is, the main dance-floor has to be entered (a bit like a swimming pool) down some stairs. So the girls tended to hang around the stairs and the poor guys had to run the gauntlet, if they wanted to escape for a drink and the girls had to either wait in the bar area, or stand around the edge of the dancefloor, looking like stalkers!
The good thing is, having spoken to one of the organisers, they were very receptive to feedback and had already acknowledged the problem and I think they're going to try to introduce some chairs around the edge next time, which would help (as long as they're not piled up with bags)
I think the bar area needs to be established as a proper dance area, right from the start of the evening.
All in all. I'm glad I went
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
This seems to be to be a totally accurate analysis by Lory of the new Ijig venue and I would agree with everything that has been said. We were told there was upstairs seating and dancing but the dancing was blocked by tables until we moved them ourselves. I would have been nice to have the bar up there open or at least some water available to avoid having to carry drinks over the downstairs dance floor.
It was interesting.
Great post there Lory. Not much I can add really.
700 dancers - no way. As Lory says there were probably it was too crowded and there were far less than 700 there. I was actually disappointed by how small the main floor was (though it was a very good surface to dance on).
Granted this was something of a trial run and it only cost a fiver, however I think that the organisers could have made a better fist of things with a bit more foresight. For example it was surely obvious that the main floor wasn't going to be sufficient and the fact that there were other supposed to be areas for dancing was even advertised, so why did so little seem to have been done to facilitate this? The wooden floor areas both up-stairs and in front of the main bar were too sticky and the chairs and tables hadn't even been moved to create a space for dancing. I had to move them myself in the upstairs balcony area. No thought also seemed to have been given to the lighting in the balcony area - the only options seemed to be lights off (too dark) or lights on (too bright). If the balcony area had a clean floor, with space cleared for dancing and some attempt to provide appropriate lighting it could have made a nice ancillary space for dancing.
I had some good dances but I wasn't particularly keen on the music and didn't like the overcrowding. As Lory said it simply made it very hard to enjoy the admittedly very good floor and the presence of a lot of good dancers.
I also agree with Lory about the problems with the layout of spaces (constant traffic down both sides of the main dance floor to and from the bar) and the lack of anywhere obvious to sit whilst waiting for dances.
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